


always a lie

by InsertLogin



Series: lords of blue and dragon flame [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: (it's the fire nation royal family what do you expect), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dragon Zuko (Avatar), Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:40:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25433260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsertLogin/pseuds/InsertLogin
Summary: It had been a week since Azula had seen her brother.orAzulon doesn't die. Zuko has an ability that changes things. And Azula doesn't care, it's just that she's curious.
Relationships: Azula & Iroh (Avatar), Azula & Ozai (Avatar), Azula & Ursa (Avatar), Azula & Zuko (Avatar), Iroh & Ursa (Avatar)
Series: lords of blue and dragon flame [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1842157
Comments: 24
Kudos: 220





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So disclaimer, I've never actually watched ATLA. However, I've seen so much about on tumblr that a fic idea popped into my head and now I guess I'm writing it. I've done some research to try and make things relatively accurate, but considering that this is a Canon Divergence anyways, it's not going to follow canon.
> 
> Also, and this isn't relevant now, but know that I pushed events to be a little earlier than they are in canon by a few years.

It had been a week since Azula had seen her brother. She wasn’t worried—she was a princess and princesses didn’t just get  _ worried _ —but she didn’t deny that she was perhaps a bit uneasy. 

It had been a week since Azula had seen Zuko. It had also coincidentally been a week since he had been called into a meeting with Father and Fire Lord Azulon. It had been a week and two days since Azula had overheard Azulon telling Father that he was going to have to kill Zuko. 

And now Zuko was gone. 

Azula knew that meant Zuko was dead. Father had to kill him, Zuko was called into a private meeting, and Zuko didn’t come out. 

He was dead. That was the only explanation that made sense. 

… Except no one had announced it. It was like Zuko had gone on a trip and was expected to be back soon, except minus all the chatter of where he went, why, and with who. Even Mother was playing along with it, and that was when Azula knew something had to be wrong, because Zuko was Mother’s favorite. 

The servants wouldn’t tell her anything of use, just stammering that he had indeed gone on a trip. They kept to the story even after she threatened them. 

They, of course, had to be lying; some of them had to have helped clean up the mess. That, coupled with the fact that no servants had been dismissed in the past week, meant that whoever helped with the clean up was still here. But no one she interrogated told her more and it got to a point that servants started to avoid her. 

So that seemed to be the extent of the information she could get. She thought about asking her parents for a brief moment before kicking that idea in the trash. She wasn’t in a stable enough position to get away with threatening her parents and idly asking them where Zuko was could have disastrous consequences. 

They could always have another child and at any rate, Uncle Iroh was the next choice for heir, not Father. 

Azula tried to let the matter rest and she told herself that she didn’t care what happened to Zuko. Zuko was weak and stupid and lucky to be born at all. But she couldn’t stop herself from wondering what exactly had happened whenever she saw no one by the turtleduck pond or when no one tattled to Mother about her. 

It had been a week. If it had only been a few days, Azula could have understood. It took time to form a cover story and that amount of time missing wasn’t especially suspicious. But it had been a  _ week _ and still  _ no one _ was saying  _ anything _ . 

She told herself it didn’t matter. She told herself she could wait for someone to bring him up, and then she could slide into questioning. 

It did matter if Father did something stupid that would cost Azula her head. And it didn’t look like anyone would be bringing Zuko up any time soon. 

Which meant that she would have to take things into her own hands. Typical. 

For something that seemed to be a secret, it wasn’t too hard to find places to look. She had a lot of time on her hands and she was a prodigy in all things. Investigation included, it turned out.

Zuko had been called to the throne room. If he had been killed there, then a number of the staff would have had to come and clean the mess up. There were blood stains to consider, or just the ashes of his body. 

But Azula hadn’t noticed any of the staff moving outside of their routine paths, and at any rate, if Zuko screamed, that could be heard. For convenience issues, Zuko had to be moved somewhere else. Somewhere where it was easier to kill him and easier to clean it up. 

That somewhere else had to be inside and nearby, because Azula honestly didn’t think that Azulon and Father would go through that much effort to kill Zuko, especially when there was already a perfect place to do the deed: the dungeons under the palace. The staff would never go there and no one would question death or a need to clean up a body there. 

Therefore, Zuko had been killed in the dungeons and to learn more, Azula could just look at the records. Maybe if there were notes jotted down about the event, she would understand why no one was talking about it. 

Finding the records was the easy part. The dungeon master didn’t even ask why Azula wanted them and she poured over them for an entire afternoon. Not because she had trouble figuring out how they were organized. It wasn’t because of that. It was because if she only looked at one date, then the dungeon master would be suspicious and bring this up with the Fire Lord. Or her father. 

Okay, and maybe also because the records were the slightest bit confusing. It took her a few times to understand exactly how they were organized and what the abbreviations meant, but she managed to sift through them anyways. When the dungeon master’s back was turned, she studied the record of the day of Zuko’s death. 

It was blank. Completely blank. The other days had records of which prisoners acted up, who was on guard, what, if there were any, disturbances that happened. The other days had all those little details, but  _ that  _ day? 

It had absolutely nothing. 

Azula frowned. That couldn’t be a coincidence. She checked the next day and noted that it was full. 

She didn’t mention it to the dungeon master. When he asked how her stay was, she just sniffed and said that he should work on his handwriting. Then she went to her room and wondered what exactly the blank record meant. 

Obviously, it was a cover up. This entire thing was a cover up. But it was an incredibly  _ lousy  _ one. If Azulon wanted to be thorough, he should have had the dungeon master keep all records intact, but take out anything that related to Zuko. Or at the very least, put in fake information. 

Unless the Fire Lord wasn’t aware that the record was blank. Perhaps he ordered the record destroyed and the dungeon master had left the blank sheet in place. But as what? A sign? 

Azula almost huffed. Yeah, a sign that the dungeon master was incompetent and deserved to be punished. 

Azula reached for paper to start writing her ideas of what in the name of everything Agni touched could be the answer to this, before shaking her head and jerking her hand back. 

Paper could be found, it could be analyzed, and it could be used against her. Her thoughts would have to suffice, because she couldn’t take that risk. Just like she couldn’t just think in her room for hours on end. There were lessons to attend to and it wouldn’t do to have Father think she was slacking. 

Instead, Azula redirected her hand towards the door handle. She needed to be heading to a lesson at any rate. As she did so, a knock came, too light and too soft. Azula paused, and stepped back from the door cautiously. 

“Azula?” It was Mother, and Azula didn’t know whether to be irritated or relieved. “May I come in?”

Azula was half tempted to tell her no, but decided that she might be able to get some facts out of Mother, if she played her cards right. 

“Sure,” she said, and settled back on her bed, sparks flying across her fingers, before the door opened. “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to see how you were doing,” Mother said, and sat down next to her. Azula scowled. Mother never cared to see how she was doing before. 

“You’re only doing it because Zuko’s not here,” she blurted out. She almost winced because that was not how she wanted to approach the issue, especially not when Mother’s smile had frozen in the way it did when Azula did something wrong.

Not that Azula actually did things wrong. It was just Mother who thought so. 

“I have to clean up after that boy so much that I usually don’t get the time,” Mother said, but they both knew it was a lie. “Now I have time for you.”

Azula didn’t say anything. The way Mother said it, it was almost as if Zuko was still alive. Agni knew that Mother wouldn’t be so calm if Zuko was dead.

“What about when he comes back?” Azula asked. 

“I’ll try to spend more time with you,” Mother said, “but you two need to promise to get along better.”

Azula frowned. Mother saw, and started on a speech of how it was important for siblings to be nice to each other, but Azula wasn’t thinking of that. 

_ Was  _ Zuko alive then? Azulon had said that Father would have to lose his first born and that was Zuko. But Mother was talking about when Zuko would come back.

Azula was young but she wasn’t stupid. She knew that death was permanent and that it wasn’t something that anyone could just come back from. Lu Ten was a prime example of this. 

Mother was either lying, being lied to, or telling the truth. 

It wouldn’t make sense for Mother to lie and anyways, Azula could always tell when Mother was lying. It didn’t make sense if it was the truth, either. Azulon was not one to pull back from his threats. 

So Mother was being lied to. That much was obvious. Azula almost sighed when she realized that Mother’s information would virtually be worthless. Except, there  _ was  _ one thing she could figure out.

“Where is he, anyways?” Azula asked, interrupting Mother’s speech. 

Mother blinked. “He’s training with Master Piandao. Didn’t your father tell you?”

“Eh, I forgot,” Azula said, shrugging. Mother’s lips pressed into a tight frown. Good. Let her believe it was because Azula hadn’t cared. 

“Excuse me, Mother,” Azula said, getting up before Mother could start talking again. “But I have a lesson starting soon, and I must attend to it.”

Mother nodded like she had any control over the situation and Azula left the room. 

Father. She had already known he was lying, but this was confirmation. 

She would, of course, need more evidence before she could even think of confronting him. And a good plan that would make it seem like she wasn’t a threat to whatever was going on. And a good backup plan in case the situation seemed like it was going to make her fall out of favor. 

_ Yes _ , Azula thought as she headed to her tutoring lesson on history,  _ that’s a good plan of action _ . 

It took a month. It took an entire  _ month _ to find more evidence and come up with plans. What was even more frustrating was that the evidence was only evidence of discrepancies and her plans weren’t even that concrete. 

Still, she felt like a month was long enough—too long, really—and at dinner, she asked, “So when’s Zuko coming back, anyways?”

Mother looked pleasantly surprised. She was probably glad that Azula was taking an interest in her brother and wasn’t calling him names. She had been a lot more present for the past month, usually talking to Azula while Azula planned and plotted. Father’s expression tensed, and Fire Lord Azulon’s face didn’t change. 

“It takes more than a month to learn the dual dao, granddaughter,” Azulon said. 

“His firebending skills will just get even weaker the more he stays away, Fire Lord,” she said. “At this point, he might as well be a nonbender.”

“Perhaps it has been getting too long,” Father mused. 

Fire Lord Azulon just hummed and Mother looked a bit more alive. Of course she did. She  _ loved _ Zuko. Azula bet that once he came back, she would go back to spending all her time with him. 

Azula mentally shook herself.  _ Once? _ Zuko was dead. That was the entire point of her investigation, to find out why his death was concealed. 

“I will send a messenger hawk to Master Piandao,” Fire Lord Azulon said casually. “We’ll see his progress and if he still has much to learn, I’m sure we can arrange for some firebending lessons to occur there.”

Father smiled and Azula absolutely did not get a sinking feeling, unless it related to the food she had just swallowed. She ate the rest of her dinner without further comment, wondering what kind of accident would be arranged. Maybe a training accident would occur, or some band of rebels would get too close to Prince Zuko, and he would tragically be killed. She wondered what Master Piandao had to do with the entire affair. He was helping with the cover up, but was he being blackmailed to help, or did he choose to help?

Father was still smiling at the end of the meal and Azula decided to hold back on the confrontation. She had a backup plan, but it didn’t account for the situation of if Father was in a  _ getting rid of nuisances _ mood. 

The news came a few days later. Master Piandao had been attacked by a ship full of earthbenders who had slipped through the defenses. He came out unharmed, but a number of the staff and the now late Prince Zuko had been killed. 

Prince Zuko, they said, had been training out near the ocean, and the earthbenders had first attacked by tearing down sides of the coast. 

There wasn’t even time for him to respond, they said. 

Mother kept a stoic face out in public, but inside the palace, she wept for hours on end. Azula knew that Mother thought something was wrong with her, for not crying. Azula didn’t want to explain that Zuko had been dead for more than a month now and that she had gotten used to the idea.

Uncle Iroh did not come to the funeral, though Azula wouldn’t have been surprised if it was because he hadn’t gotten an invitation. It wasn’t like many people knew where he was. His journey to travel to the Spirit World took him all over the world. 

She briefly wondered if Iroh would find Zuko with his son. She also briefly wondered how that interaction would go. Probably with a lot of crying. 

Azula was still picturing it when Father took her aside. It hadn’t been long after the funeral, but he was already out of his white mourning clothes. Azula hadn’t had the time to change yet, but she was itching to. Mourning clothes were  _ uncomfortable _ and  _ hot _ .

Father led her down a hallway, and Azula refused to feel nervous. She was… she was  _ annoyed _ because she wanted to go change. 

Father didn’t say anything as they walked and as they moved farther and farther away, Azula asked, “Father, why is Mother not coming with us?”

He didn’t slow in his pace at all, and his expression didn’t change, but Azula knew he was dissatisfied with the question. Or with her. Or with Mother. It was difficult to tell the difference these days.

“Your mother needs some time for herself to grieve,” he said carefully. “She is an… emotional lady.”

_ She is weak _ , was what Father was really saying. So he was dissatisfied with Mother. 

Father took her down to the dungeons, and while she didn’t show it, she  _ couldn’t _ show it, she was wary. Maybe, just maybe, she hadn’t been as subtle in her searching as she thought, and she was being led to the consequences of her actions. 

But Father did not lead her to the dungeon master. He led her down the halls and then deeper into the dungeons, to cells that she hadn’t even heard of before. They only stopped when they were in front of something that was more of a room than a cell. There were more guards here than anywhere else except for the exits. The door to the room allowed no view in and there were no neighboring cells. 

“You will tell no one about this, understand?” It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t even a command, because it was assumed. 

“I understand,” she said, because it was required. Father nodded at a guard, who then carefully went to open the door. Azula was ushered inside. 

At first, the guard in front of her obscured her gaze, so she couldn’t see what was inside or why there was so much security. 

Then the guard moved aside and Azula stared. 

There was a dragon. There was a  _ dragon _ in front of her. There was a dragon all chained up in a cell underneath the palace. 

_ Uncle Iroh killed the last dragon, though, _ a stupid part of her thought. She slapped that part. Of course he would  _ say _ that. Dragons were feared and the people would be happier if one was dead. But dragons were also useful. 

Supposedly. This one didn’t look too useful at the moment. The only way it could be called large was if its length was looked at, and considering it was in the dungeons, it was obviously unruly enough that it couldn’t be trained for warfare. 

The dragon stirred, the chains rattled, and it lifted its head to look at them. That was when Azula saw the left side of the dragon’s face. She didn’t flinch. After all, she reminded herself, the burns would look worse on a human. If the burns, which traveled down the dragon’s neck and surely onto the left side of its body, were on a human, it would be a much,  _ much  _ uglier picture. 

“Where did you find it?” Azula asked, because it was the more correct response than  _ Is that the dragon Uncle Iroh killed?  _ or  _ How long has it been here? _ or any of the other stupid things she was thinking about.

“Doesn’t matter,” Father said. “See if you can speak to it.”

Azula raised her brows but tried anyway. “Dragon. Hello.”

The dragon looked at her and lowered its head back down onto the ground. 

“Is it still sedated?” Father asked. 

The guard who had let them in shifted slightly. “Yes, your Highness.”

“Reduce the dosage slightly,” Father said. “It may have trouble communicating because of it.”

“Of course, your Highness.” 

“We should perhaps give it a few days for it to adjust to the new dosage,” Father said and it took a moment for Azula to realize that he was talking to her. 

“Why wait?” she asked. 

“Your mother may be suspicious of how much time you’ll be spending away and it would be best if her suspicions were aroused later rather than sooner,” Father said. 

Azula didn’t often feel behind or as if she was missing something, but she certainly felt that way now. It was like… like she was dumped into an ocean and expected to swim to coordinates she didn’t even know. 

“Besides,” Father continued, “it would look a bit better if we waited till a bit later in the mourning process.”

“It’s a shame, what happened to Zuko,” Azula said, grasping at something that was finally familiar, at what seemed to be control. 

“Hmm. Yes,” Father said, his eyes even more trained on the dragon. The dragon shifted again. “Perhaps one day, he could have at least been an adequate firebender. No matter, there are more important matters to focus on.”

At that, the dragon snorted, and Azula saw sparks escape its nostrils. That… that wasn’t a place she had expected fire to come from. From her Father’s expression, it seemed he hadn’t expected that either. 

Her eyes traveled down and were fixed upon the small piles of bones near the creature. They were obviously too close to clean up without some injury.

“How does it get fed?” she asked, still staring.

“It is a bit more well-behaved now, but typically with a number of firebenders.” 

Azula hummed, considering the chains and other restraints, considering the way the dragon was looking, considering why her father brought her down here in the first place. “Will I have to train it?”

Father seemed amused. “Let’s focus on communication now,” he said. “But training is indeed the goal.”

Azula wanted to ask more, but Father walked out of the cell and she had no choice but to follow. The door was shut quickly after them, and the large number of locks were placed on again. Azula almost scoffed at that. If the dragon got free, it could melt the door down or break through the wall. Locks would mean nothing to it. 

Father said nothing else to her, not even a reminder to not tell no one. Azula, after all, was a girl who only needed to be taught a lesson once. 

Mother found them soon enough and whisked her away. Azula wasn’t quite sure why, but she allowed it. She needed time to think of what just happened, to plan, and Mother’s talks were always a prime time for that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and feel free to comment if you noticed something off or something that's a typo. I can't promise I'll write this quickly because I never watched ATLA so I have to search up a lot that happens, but this is going to continue. Hope you guys are doing well.
> 
> Edited 07.30.2020 to fix a few typos + some wording issues.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Azula does a bit more searching and gets to see more of this mysterious dragon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I did NOT expect that response to the first chapter, so thank you so much to everyone who left a kudo/comment/subscription/etc. because my god that warmed my heart. 
> 
> Some notes/warnings: Azula is going to be using some ableist language (she refers to "the dragon" as broken, useless, etc., because of the dragon's injuries) and she also refers to the dragon with it pronouns. Both these things are going to continue; the it pronouns will stop once Azula figures out the identity of the dragon, and the ableism will tone down after time, but this is something that she's going to have to work on.

Three days later, Azula went to her firebending lessons only to find Father waiting for her instead of her tutor. Mother, who had taken to following her like a baby turtleduck followed its mother, was not happy. She didn’t say anything, of course, but her expression tightened and her smile became more forced.

“Prince Ozai,” Mother said, quite icily for someone from the Fire Nation, “is it not time for Azula’s firebending lessons?”

“I will be overseeing them today,” Father replied. “It seems as if I haven’t been able to see my daughter at all these past few days, and with Zuko so recently lost… well, I would like to spend time with my only remaining child, while I can.”

Father hadn’t looked upset at all at Zuko’s passing and now, Azula would say that he was even suppressing a smile. Mother was hiding it, but she very much was upset and Azula thought she was even more so that Father wasn’t. 

Letting out a small sigh, Azula waited as Mother and Father had a quiet battle over her head, one fought in expressions and head tilts, and focused instead on why Father was here. 

Father had trained with her before, but that was always in front of some audience. There was no one here except for some servants working the background, and Mother, if she chose to stay. 

The only other reason he would be here that Azula could think of was the dragon, but Father had said that they should wait till later in the mourning process, and also not to alert Mother’s suspicions. Perhaps three days was late for him, but he was definitely alerting Mother’s suspicions now.

Azula hoped he was here because of the dragon, though. She hadn’t had much time for theorization lately, but she felt that the timing of the appearance of the dragon and Zuko’s death were too coincidental to actually be a coincidence. If she saw it, she could start to get some answers. 

Azula mused about the dragon until Mother’s hand slipped from her shoulder. Mother lost, and now Azula was free.

“Come along,” Father said, turning from the field, and Azula hurried to catch up with him. 

“Firebending typically happens here, does it not?” Mother’s voice interrupted. So she was not quite out of the battle yet. 

“Firebenders must be able to bend everywhere,” Father answered smoothly. “A flat terrain for practice is useful for beginners who are barely able to bend, but for true application, practice must be sought elsewhere.”

The words seeped of patronization and Azula knew what he really meant. 

_ You _ , he was saying to Mother _ , are not a firebender. Your comments here are irrelevant and not needed _ . 

Mother truly lost then, and she did not follow as Father led her away. Once they left her view, they headed down to the dungeons. Azula was the one suppressing a smile then. So it  _ was _ the dragon they were seeing. 

“It has responded to the lower levels of sedation quite nicely,” Father said as they approached the door. “You will be in there for the duration of your lesson.”

The guards fumbled with the locks and Azula stepped inside, not even flinching when the door slammed shut behind her. 

The dragon was in a different position this time, and something about it seemed off. Azula lit a small fire so that she could see better, and immediately regretted it. 

The dragon’s scarred side was facing the door and it was… it was a lot worse than she had thought. 

“You’re broken,” she said, not even disguising the disappointment in her voice. “I knew you were scarred but this is…”

Azula trailed off. This was likely the reason why communication was the goal and not training. The creature would hardly be fit for any sort of battle, considering those injuries. 

The dragon’s head lifted slightly, and it made a movement as if to turn to look at her, only to be stopped by chains. It let out a small snort and flicked its tail, though Azula thought that even its tail was more restricted in its movement. 

It made sense, though. The dragon was less sedated now, and it could easily be more dangerous. 

“I suppose your deficiencies don’t really matter now,” Azula mused, and the dragon let out a low rumble as if it was upset. “Not much to do while locked up except talk.”

As the dragon shifted to the best of its abilities, Azula’s eyes wandered to the bones again. They didn’t look very different from the ones that she had last seen there, and if she wasn’t mistaken, there were more. 

Briefly, Azula wondered if  _ that _ was the connection between the dragon and Zuko. Maybe Zuko had come upon it, tried to be nice to it like he was to all animals, and then the dragon ate him. That would definitely be a way Zuko would die. 

Or maybe Zuko was responsible for finding the dragon, somehow. Maybe he had actually made friends with it, and that was how it was captured. And because Zuko was such a big blabbermouth, he had to be silenced. Which meant that either Azulon and Father had arranged that whole meeting as an act or Father had purposely aggravated Azulon to get Zuko killed. 

And  _ then _ , Zuko was killed by the dragon, who was longing for revenge after getting caught because of Zuko. 

That also seemed like a way that Zuko would die, but Azula scrapped the idea. It implied that Azulon didn’t know about this—which was absurd unless the man had really gone senile—and then the  _ private _ meeting Azulon and Father had was an entire act, which additionally made no sense. 

She also really didn’t want Zuko to get eaten or killed by the dragon. 

Not because she cared about him and preferred he had a quicker or nicer death than that, but because Zuko had told her that he heard from someone that animals who had killed humans were more likely to kill them again, and that those who ate humans tended to find them tasty snacks. 

Not that that was actually true. Zuko was always very gullible. He could have easily been lied to.

And if it  _ was _ true, it definitely did not matter, because Azula could take the dragon anyday. She was a prodigy, after all, and dragon fighting was likely included. 

The dragon let out a loud snort, and Azula’s mind snapped back to attention as sparks flew from the dragon’s nose. Quietly she filed her ideas away and also thought about if it was possible for her to breathe fire from her nose. 

“So you didn’t take the offer,” Azula said. “You know that it would be much more beneficial for everyone if you just spoke, right? Then we could move to the training aspect, and you may just be a dumb and disabled animal, but I’m sure that even  _ you _ would like the chance to walk again.”

The rumble sounded more like a growl this time, and Azula could see hints of the dragon’s teeth. It tried to open its jaws, only for the muzzle to keep its jaws firmly shut.

_ The muzzle. _ Azula couldn’t believe that she had been so stupid. Scratch that, she couldn’t believe her father and everyone else here could be so stupid. If the dragon made sound like any other creature did, then it would need use of its mouth. 

The mouth that was currently muzzled completely shut. 

“Ah, the muzzle is frustrating,” she said, and the dragon rumbled again. Its teeth disappeared underneath its lips again. “I shall inform Father and that will be rectified.” 

The dragon settled into a lower position, its head settling on its forelegs and its head turning the farthest away from her as it could. Which was not very far, but it got the point across. 

“I did not say you could sleep,” she snapped, and the dragon’s head rose slightly. It was hard to tell what it was feeling, but the derisive snort that soon followed and the return to a relaxed position made its stance clear: it did not care about what she said and it would not listen to her. 

Azula gritted her teeth and casually fed the flames until they brightened every corner and until the dragon wouldn’t be  _ able _ to ignore her. She watched almost eagerly for the dragon’s reaction. 

The dragon’s tail flicked slightly but otherwise, did not move. 

Azula let her flame die out until there was only enough to see with. It wasn’t because of anything that the dragon did but the fact that it was stupid to threaten it with fire. It was probably too dumb to understand that it was a threat and if Azula carried through, she would have to hurt it. The dragon was scarred enough as it was, and Azula was fairly certain that this was the only dragon Father had in his possession. Otherwise, he would have gotten rid of it and replaced it with a better one. 

Azula sat in the corner of the cell in a place where the ground wasn’t too filthy and talked without thought for the rest of the hour. 

“Well?” Father asked when he came for her. 

“It can understand words, at least to a basic degree,” she reported, already up on her feet, her hands clasped behind her back, “and speaking capacities may be hindered by the muzzle, assuming that it makes sound like we do.”

“Is that it?” Which really meant,  _ If that’s all you learned, you’re going to regret it. _

“It seemed to rest at a point and I was about to punish it for not being responsive, but considering how defective it is already, more burns would only incapacitate it further, making it only as useful as an investigational study,” Azula said with just enough promptness to make it not sound like an excuse. “Thus, I refrained from reprimanding it, though in that way, some time was lost. However, in my opinion, it doesn’t matter if the dragon can talk back.”

Azula looked at Father, waiting for the nod of approval before continuing, “It’s useless for any sort of stealth mission considering how noticeable a dragon is. The most we can use it for is direct battle or intimidation, where it only matters if it understands commands and does them. It can understand us, so we can use it.”

Father smiled. It was a smile she didn’t quite like, but it was directed at the dragon and not at her. 

“You will only have firebending lessons twice a week now,” Father said. “You will come here during the other times.”

“For training?”

“For communication.” Azula suppressed a frown and Father threw another look at the dragon, who curled further away from them. “It seemed to rest while you were speaking? That’s fairly rude, though I suppose it’s expected a dragon wouldn’t know manners. Perhaps it should learn some.”

Azula recalled how the dragon completely ignored her. “I think it should.”

Father’s smile grew and they left. Azula went back to the training yard, only to find Mother waiting there with a book. She was about to backtrack when Mother’s head rose, her eyes easily finding Azula. 

Now it was Mother smiling. It was a strange smile. Azula didn’t understand it, not really. She knew a similar sort of smile had always been directed at Zuko and Azula wasn’t sure how to feel about that. She did know that she didn’t like how many people were smiling today. 

“How did you like your firebending lesson?” Mother asked and it took a few moments for Azula to formulate a response. 

“It was satisfactory,” she said and Mother started talking again. This time, it was about lessons and how it was good for her to enjoy them but good to have time to relax as well. 

Azula wondered why Mother’s talks were so preachy and if they always had been. If so, then perhaps she owed Zuko for taking the brunt of them, and their apparent side-effect of weakness. 

She also wondered if Mother was aware of where they were, because Caldera was no place to enjoy oneself, much less  _ relax _ . 

Still, she wouldn’t tell Mother that. It would probably lead to another long lecture about… well, Azula wasn’t sure what it would be about, but she was sure she wouldn’t like it. 

So, heaving a small sigh, she tuned Mother out and started to think about any other connections there could be between the dragon and Zuko. 

Azula almost lit her bed on fire when she realized Zuko couldn’t plausibly be connected to the dragon. The only way it could be within the realm of plausibility was if the dragon killed him, but even that was a stretch, because  _ Father _ was supposed to kill him, and Azula knew Azulon would not accept a job half-done. 

Zuko couldn’t have accidentally found the dragon, because he was killed for Father being disrespectful. And Father couldn’t have spoken out on purpose, because if Zuko had found the dragon before his death, Azula would have known. Zuko was never able to hide or lie about anything in his life, and if he had discovered something as big as a dragon, it would have been obvious.

Azula had been around Zuko before his death and there had been nothing wrong with him except for the general anxiety and frustration he carried. So unless Azulon had allowed for Zuko to be killed by a dragon, then there was no reasonable connection. 

That was more disappointing than Azula would like to admit, but at least she wouldn’t be going after a dead lead. 

Though, it wasn’t as if she had to stop thinking about and looking for information about the dragon. Mother had said something about it being important to keep the mind fresh, and considering there was nothing else in this wretched place to occupy her mind, it would be more beneficial to have a side interest to investigate. 

Perhaps not all of Mother’s talks were useless. Azula would have to keep an ear out for any other useful information. 

The next session, the muzzle was off and Azula felt like she was bursting from actually being able to  _ do  _ something. Talking aimlessly to an audience that could only rumble back was not how she liked to spend her time, but talking to an audience that could plausibly speak back was  _ much  _ more interesting. 

The entire time, Azula sounded out words, and tried to make her instructions as easy to follow as possible.

All of it was useless. The dragon, it turned out, could not make words with its throat. Sure, it could make sounds that lasted as long as the syllables Azula sounded out did, and it could make sounds that sounded different from each other, but none were intelligible as words. 

“It seems incapable to speak,” Azula reported at the end of the session, reminding herself that it wasn’t  _ her _ fault that it failed, and that she had the proof if Father got upset. 

Strangely, Father seemed somewhat pleased with that result. Azula watched him warily, but there was no hidden punishment that came. 

Mother seemed to understand that she was not in the mood, and laid off on her preachy talks for the evening. 

The muzzle was back on after that. The dragon also rested less and shifted more. Azula decided that that was a mystery she was not going to pursue.

Azula soon despised her alternate firebending lessons. She told herself she didn’t, and that it was all for the mystery of the dragon, but that was a lie even Zuko would have seen through. She couldn’t do anything while in the sessions, not even think about either of her projects. 

It didn’t help that Mother would always take her on longer walks afterwards. It was always a  _ choice _ , of course, since Mother would always ask if Azula wanted to go on a walk. Conceivably, Azula could always snap back at her and tell Mother that she had other things she wanted to do. 

Conceivably. Instead, she would always nod, because she didn’t need Mother becoming  _ concerned _ and going to Father with questions. 

Going along with the walks was the lesser of two evils, and it was a choice that Azula heavily despised having to make. Speculation and plotting was all very well during the walks, but speculation could only do so much when based on limited information. Maybe if she got another mystery, the time the walks provided her with would actually be useful, but then she would be stuck at having to search for information to solve three mysteries and she did not have that time. 

_ If it wasn’t for you, I could look for Zuko _ , she thought at the dragon bitterly at one session.  _ I could even search for you, you ungrateful brute.  _

The dragon’s eye followed her and then it tilted its head. The stupid part of Azula imagined it saying,  _ Not  _ my _ fault. You should manage your time better _ . 

Or perhaps that was her own mind telling her what she should’ve already done. No one would make time for her, especially not for investigation, so of course she had to do it herself. The only question was how. Her waking moments were occupied by lessons or meetings or Mother and Azula couldn’t just  _ not _ sleep. 

Or… could she?

She waited until it was late at night. She knew no one was going to come to check up on her, but she figured it was better to make everyone think she was definitely asleep. When she felt enough time had passed, Azula got up and went to a small door hidden by the curtains in the corner. 

She remembered the day Zuko had shown the passageways to her. He told her that she  _ had  _ to keep it a secret, and she had promised. It was back in the days when she didn’t lie so much. He then had opened a door she hadn’t even noticed was there, and started to crawl in. Azula had followed and Zuko had shown her the entire palace. 

Azula hadn’t used them in a while, not since Zuko stopped inviting her, but they were useful now. She carefully stepped inside, closing the door behind her enough so that it wouldn’t be noticeable to anyone that walked in. Running her hand along the side of the wall, Azula searched with her fingers, until she felt a familiar dotted pattern. Then, making completely sure she didn’t accidentally move to another pattern, she traveled through the darkness. 

All in all, she did not spend that much time in the passageways. There was only so much sleep she could go without without it becoming noticeable, and besides, considering her lack of recent practice, she needed to become reacquainted with the paths before truly using them. 

There were consequences even she couldn’t escape if someone found her breaking into official meeting rooms and private chambers, after all.

Sometimes, Azula wondered how slow this process would be going if she wasn’t a prodigy. 

_ It would probably take years _ , she liked to tell herself when she shifted through pile after pile of unhelpful paperwork and when the dragon would become deaf to everything and one. She told herself that she was doing this well. After all, she was discovering more and more inconsistencies within records and Father didn’t stop her sessions with the dragon. 

Azula had thought that Father would actually consider her suggestion, though. He had smiled, after all. That meant he had to be considering it. But here she was, still stuck with talking in a dark cell to a creature whose species was supposed to be extinct and that could only communicate through bodily movements.

“Alright,” Azula said, letting out a long sigh, “perhaps you just don’t understand. So, how much of what I say do you actually understand? Two tail thumps for less than fifty percent, and nod for higher than fifty.”

This was one of the dragon’s more aware days. It snorted and its eye stared at her, but nevertheless, it nodded as much as it could. 

“Two tail thumps for less than seventy five percent, and nod for higher.”

Another nod. 

“So would you say that you understand me completely?”

The dragon started to nod its head before lowering itself back down and thumping with its tail lightly. 

“If you’re trying to lie to me, then you should know that you’re doing a bad job of it,” Azula said. “Though I suppose this shows you’re fairly intelligent if you can reconsider your responses. It’s good you’re not completely useless, then.”

Chains rattled slightly and Azula saw the dragon shiver slightly. She wasn’t sure what at, because while they were below ground, the dungeons were far from cold. It was probably faking it.

“We still have quite some time left,” Azula said. “This won’t get you out of other questions.”

The dragon didn’t respond and Azula figured that the lucid part of the dragon’s day was rapidly ending. Except instead of settling down and turning dull, the dragon started to thrash around in its chains. 

“Dragon!” The dragon didn’t seem to hear her. “Dragon, I  _ order _ you to  _ stop _ .”

The dragon did not stop and Azula conjured flames as a warning, but it didn’t react to the sudden heat, unless the shaking of its body were actually violent flinches. She threw fire near it, to try and scare it into stopping, but it continued to thrash like it was possessed.

Azula wasn’t sure what to do then. She stared for a long moment until the sound of gears turning came and snapped her out of it. She watched the movement warily, but noted that the chains were only shortened until the dragon could hardly move. It still tried to, though, if its straining muscles were any indication.

The guards soon shuffled in, and some tried to get her out, but she shot a glare at them and waited for Father to appear. 

When he did, she asked, “Does that happen frequently?”

“Unfortunately,” Father replied and Azula wondered why she had never seen it before. “This is why communication is preferred to training. It doesn’t feel anything when in these states, so other methods to get through to it do not work. A severe disadvantage, if we are to use it.”

Azula nodded and reluctantly left before remembering that technically, she had finished early. Which meant she had time she could use to fully investigate. 

She moved a bit quicker then, and if she had a smile on her face, that was no one’s business except for her own.

Mother tracked her down later. 

“I didn’t see you after your lesson,” she said. 

“I finished early and went on a walk,” Azula said before adding, “I wasn’t sure where to find you. If I did, I would’ve asked if you wanted to come.”

Mother smiled that weird smile of hers and seemed to relax. “We can go on one tomorrow,” she suggested, and Azula wanted to say no, because that was when Azula didn’t have any firebending lessons, real or alternate, but she had already dug her grave. She might as well lie in it. 

Azula nodded and Mother’s smile grew. 

The next session, the dragon looked almost dead. Azula wasn’t sure she even saw it breathe, but no one seemed concerned so Azula wasn’t either.

Father didn’t say anything when the next few sessions that should have been filled with visits to the dragon were instead filled with normal firebending lessons. Azula didn’t mention it either. But she didn’t stop thinking about it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was chapter two and I hope you enjoyed it! If you liked it, leave a comment, even if the comment is a smiley face or the word kudos over and over. Once again, feel free to let me know if I made any grammar mistakes or anything of the like; I read through this chapter several times, but at a point, I just got really tired and decided to post it. I may come back later to fix some things on my own, if I reread and decide that there's something that needs fixing.
> 
> Anyways, I was reading more into ATLA and I discovered that Roku had a dragon for an animal guide and I realized it would be so big brained for Azula to be the Avatar and then for Zuko to be the reincarnation of Fang. Alas, I already wrote 10k+ words of what happens later on, so I can't really follow that premise. It was interesting to think about, though. 
> 
> Also apologies for even slower future updates, because school is starting very soon, and I have quite a few hard classes this year. Hope you guys are doing well and see you next time I update, ig!


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